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I go to my fair share of movies throughout the year, but typically don’t pay much attention to the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that gets films necessary buzz for Academy Award consideration. I’m referring to filmmakers and talent doing whatever it takes – interviews, promotions, photo shoots – to get their film in front of Academy voters and media.

Don’t think for one minute that Tinseltown Oscar hopefuls aren’t negotiating. Even a simple quid pro quo – chatting up the movie and garnering good will and attention in the process – can be defined as negotiation.

Which brings me to Joaquin Phoenix, who was nominated this week in the best actor category for The Master, a movie about a World War II veteran (Phoenix) who falls in with a

English: Joaquin Phoenix, Cannes 2000 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

charismatic cultish leader played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, also nominated in the supporting actor category.

When it comes to plugging his movie, Phoenix isn’t the negotiating type.

In an interview with Interview Magazine, when Phoenix was asked what he would do when put on the awards circuit for The Master, the actor said, “It’s a carrot, but it’s the worst-tasting carrot I’ve ever tasted in my whole life,” and that he didn’t want it. He said that “pitting people against each other...It's the stupidest thing in the whole world.” And, for good measure, he also threw in that the process [of doing the awards circuit] was “total, utter bullshit, and I don’t want to be a part of it.”

My objective here is not to comment on whether Phoenix was a nice person to have said what he did. (To be fair, the following month he did sort of recant to the Sydney Morning Herald. When asked whether he would attend the Oscars, if nominated, he said, “Come on man, you know that it’s more complex than that,” and “It’s not like I [unprintable] hate the Oscars.”)

As a negotiation coach, I’m far more interested in how this high-caliber but polarizing actor – who might be expected to spiritedly chat up his movie – doesn’t want to be held hostage to Oscar. Phoenix’s behavior fascinates me because the biggest challenge in all negotiation is putting fear aside and walking away from a deal.

The reason most people can’t walk away is because of emotional need. Even top CEOs and their teams of negotiators are stunned – literally stunned – when I point out that they’re so emotionally invested they’ll take any offer made to them. They don’t realize they can say “no” and leave the negotiating table. It just never occurred to them.

Of course, before you can walk away, you need to know your mission and purpose. If, say, it’s to provide consumers with the best widgets in the world, and the adversary is offering half the price you’re asking, you have a choice. You can accept their deal and go out of business – which means you won’t be able to fulfill your mission and purpose . Or you can politely say no.

Clearly, Phoenix is an actor who has no intention of being trapped, and it’s admirable. I’m guessing that his mission and purpose is to perform and act for the public without too many strings attached, and that he’s not invested emotionally in getting honors and accolades. He might want or like the recognition or a nomination or an Oscar. But he doesn’t need it. He doesn’t want to kowtow to the folks who might help secure a gold statuette for him.

His attitude, which probably strikes many people as ungrateful, is a powerful lesson for negotiators. When he played Johnny Cash, Phoenix “walked the line.” But sometimes walking away may be even better.

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This article is by Jim Camp, the founder and chief executive of the Camp Negotiation Institute, a negotiation training organization, and author of Start with No: The Negotiating Tools that the Pros Don’t Want You to Know and NO: The Only System of Negotiation You Need for Work or Home, both published by Crown.